China says it knows how to reprocess nuclear fuel (Update 2)

Jan 03, 2011 By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN , Associated Press

A water-cooling tower emits a cloud of steam from a coal-fired power station in Beijing. Chinese scientists say they have developed nuclear fuel reprocessing technology that could effectively end uranium supply concerns, according to state media, as Beijing strives for energy security.

Chinese scientists have mastered the technology for reprocessing fuel from nuclear power plants, potentially boosting the supplies of carbon-free electricity to keep the country's economy booming, state television reported Monday.

The breakthrough will extend by many times the amount of power that can be generated from China's nuclear plants as fissile and fertile materials are recovered to be new fuel, CCTV said.

Several European countries, Russia, India and Japan already reprocess nuclear fuel - the actual materials used to make nuclear energy - to separate and recover the unused uranium and plutonium, reduce waste and safely close the nuclear cycle.

The CCTV report gave no details on whether or when China would begin reprocessing on an industrial scale.

China overtook the United States as the world's largest energy consumer in 2009, years before it was expected to do so, according to the Paris-based International Energy Agency.

But it is heavily dependent on coal, a major pollutant. It has 13 nuclear power plants in use now and ambitiously plans to add potentially hundreds more.

Reprocessing nuclear fuel costs significantly more than using it once and storing it as waste. It is also controversial because extracted plutonium can be used in nuclear weapons, although China has long had a nuclear arsenal.

U.S. commercial reprocessing of plutonium was halted by then-President Jimmy Carter because of nuclear proliferation worries. Then-President George W. Bush proposed a resumption, but the National Research Council found it not economically justifiable. President Barack Obama scrapped the Bush effort.

Recovered plutonium and - when prices are high - uranium can be re-used. Some reactors can use other reprocessed components, potentially multiplying the amount of energy that results from the original uranium fuel by about 60 times.

Wang Junfeng, project director for the state-run China National Nuclear Corporation, told CCTV the Chinese scientists employed a chemical process that was effective and safe.

"In this last experiment, we made a preparation of standard quality uranium products and standard quality plutonium products, so we can say we were successful," Wang said.

CCTV said the country has enough fuel now to last up to 70 years and the breakthrough could yield enough to last 3,000 years.

To produce that amount of fuel, however, China would have to build a hugely expensive and highly dangerous breeder reactor, said Matthew Bunn, an expert on the Chinese nuclear program at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Rather than build a breeder reactor or even start reprocessing on a commercial scale, China should simply store used fuel for the next several decades while safer and less expensive technology emerges, Bunn said.

"Reprocessing the spent fuel is much more dangerous," Bunn said, adding that it increased the risk of nuclear terrorism if recovered fuel were stolen.

CCTV says the details of the process the Chinese scientists developed after 20 years' work are being kept secret. The technologies used in other countries also are considered industrial secrets and generally not shared.

Bunn said China build a pilot-scale reprocessing plant several years ago but repeatedly postphoned using it, possibly because of technical problems.

"My interpretation of this statement is that they have resolved whatever issues were delaying that," Bunn said.

China's total 2009 energy consumption, including sources ranging from oil and coal to wind and solar power, was equal to 2.265 billion tons of oil, compared with 2.169 billion tons used by the U.S., the IEA said.

The consumption boom reflects China's transformation from a nation of subsistence farmers to one of workers increasingly trading bicycles for cars and buying air conditioners and other energy-hungry home electronics.

That has also bestowed on China status as the world's biggest polluter, although Beijing has long pointed at developed nations in climate change talks and resists international pressure for it to take a larger role in curbing greenhouse gas emissions.

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This may be a new process, but I don't think it is new technology. Could be wrong since nuclear science is magic to me.More to the point. I don't want anything created by the 'state-run China National Nuclear Corp' to succeed. The horror this title conjures far surpasses any science fiction.

"China's proven uranium sources will last only 50 to 70 years, but this now changes to 3,000 years," said the report, which provided scant details on what it described as a "breakthrough."

Whatever technology they have, are you surprised they're keeping it secret? The article isn't a letdown for reporting the information it was given. If anything, they should be given props for not speculating like any other news agency would

We could have had the same tech operating safely and economically in this country for many years but for the traitorous 'hippie' movement back in the sixties. This was the same economic sabotage that cost us the SST and guaranteed that the only SST's that were built and operated successfully were the Russian AeroFlot Tupelov-144. It is a credit to mankind and to the Chinese that they were able to do this. Now they will be able to take this to space, hopefully with a nuclear main launch single stage to space craft. Such will fulfill mankind's destiny to claim our solar system for ourselves and our children. As for us, we may consider seeing to it that our children learn the language of our new masters and landlords in the future. Energy poor, the Chinese used slave labor to take our jobs. Now with tech of whatever origin, they will keep those jobs forever. In the future, WE will be THEIR slaves and clean their toilets gladly. Hippies really did a job on us.

Standing Beer! Good luck with that toilet bowl career. Until this minute, I have never believed that alternative realities could interact. By the way, don't ever confuse Yuppies/Muppies(Mindless urban professionals) with Hippies.When exactly before or after the bizarre, fatal TU 144 crash at Paris Air Show did this plane operate?Wait! SORRY! I get it now. Your rant is sarcasm based on James Blish's 'Cities in Flight' novels of the '50s'. Now that's funny! Good job!!!

Glad to see this more widely known. It's been possible, as it says, since Jimmy Carter let his ideology override his common sense. Anything that lets China dump coal, and thereby pressure the USA Coal Cartel to stop burning it, is a good thing.

seeing as though China has built 2/3rds of the 560 new coal fired powered plants from 2002-2006 maybe now they can get busy increasing their number of nuclear power plants from 13 to something much greater.

Try finding safe drinking water or food in China in 20 years after they've been dumping rad-waste all over the place, or had an accident or two form "re-process problems".Nuclear; It 'aint clean, it 'aint green.At most we should use it here during our transition to de-centralized solar and other renewables, while reducing use and conserving as a nation.Keep the uranium in the ground.

StandingBear-"We could have had the same tech operating safely and economically in this country for many years but for the traitorous 'hippie' movement back in the sixties."Change the name to "TalkingBull"!

MetEd, the operators of the plant DID lie about the radiation release that occurred.

Granted, it may have been small, but if you want a negative reaction from people with lasting effects, try lying after putting large numbers of peoples lives at risk.

Some reactors can use other reprocessed components, potentially multiplying the amount of energy that results from the original uranium fuel by about 60 times.

Wang Junfeng, project director for the state-run China National Nuclear Corporation, told CCTV the Chinese scientists employed a chemical process that was effective and safe.

Since it's a chemical process (assuming they're using the terminology right), this has nothing to do with changing how the fuel is fissioned but only with how the spent fuel is processed (ie. breeders over more traditional PWR/D20 reactors).

There's only so much U-235 you can pull from a spent rod which might give you 3-10x as much power from each rod. For 60x they must be talking about repeated extraction of plutonium from spent rods. This can already be done, so their tech is either more efficient than current technology or it can pull more plutonium per spent rod (better plutonium/uranium solvent or seperator or something).

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